"It's like treacle oozing from a harpsichord. Sounds delicious, eh?" gush The Superimposers on their saccharine-sweet new release, 'Harpsichord Treacle'. Like treacle, the record is pleasant in small doses and slides down well, but unlike the sticky stuff it's friendly and accessible (those pesky tin lids). It might not be a masterpiece, but it's certainly worth a spoon-dip.
With its eerily McCartney-esque vocals and lush melodies somewhat embarrassingly redolent of Incubus, 'Harpsichord Treacle' evokes whimsy dreams of drifting downstream. Picture yourself on a boat... on a river... yeah, yeah. Not to suggest it's entirely lacking in originality; not many records can evoke the insouciance of the 70s whilst simultaneously transporting you back to the toe-tapping jive days of the 50s and slipping some 80s-style keyboard demos in there too - bonus.
Lovely though the melodies may be, the lyrics are often unsubstantial, demonstrated by the rather irksome lyric "love comes down and he's kicking around your door", underlining an irritating languor that prevents this LP from ever being particularly infiltrating.
Added to that, the promise to 'Make It All Better' should probably have the suffix -'if I can be bothered to get off my hammock'. If 'Harpsichord Treacle' were a man, he'd be infuriatingly indolent, and wear flares. He'd amble leisurely and make you do all the work in bed, although as The Superimposers' popularity has proven - some girls like boys like that.
This is a wonderfully anodyne antidote to gloomy February, we just can't help thinking that come spring, you'll all be screwing the lid back on the jar.Rating: 7/10
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